Renewable Energy

We hear a lot about the Green Economy and the Smart Economy - at Compass we have the opportunity to combine the two:  Providing innovative technology solutions in the optimal and sustainable exploitation of renewable energy resources.  Planning for best use of renewable energy sources benefits from our geoweb mapping services that permit analysis and management of data, wider diffusion of information, and encourages collaboration across all stakeholders.

Mapping and Modelling Bioenergy Resources

Compass have created a web-based management and analysis tool for the analysis and modelling of bioenergy crops - a system which has been applied to Ireland but can be adapted to other countries. Its goals are to help answer key questions regarding development of bioenergy, such as:

• Where are current bioenergy resources?
• Where is current bioenergy demand?
• What is the potential bioenergy output from all resources?
• What is the cost of production?
• What is the return on bioenergy production?
• What is the carbon cost of bioenergy production?
• What is the future potential for sustainable bioenergy production?

The Bioenergy Mapping System can collate a huge range of datasets and couples these into various analyses around crop suitability, yield, cost and profitability to allow the above questions to be answered.

For more information please see the following article published in Geoconnexion (April 2010), and our paper as submitted to the i-SUP2010 conference.

Geothermal Data Sharing

Working with geothermal data as supplied by the national authority for Ireland, we have designed a atlas viewer that is readily adaptable to other national or local datasets.  For the Geothermal Atlas published at maps.seai.ie/geothermal, data shared includes measured subsurface temperatures; modelled subsurface temperatures; and geologic regions and rock type. The Geothermal data are viewable in the context of Google served data layers, and are useful for researchers, consultants and decision-makers interested in assessing the geothermal potential at any location.

Wind Maps for All

We have developed a customisable Wind Atlas viewer allowing display of digital map of wind energy resources, both onshore and offshore. It provides detailed information on wind speeds, off-shore exclusion zones, and distribution networks for specific locations around. The wind atlas assists decision makers and developers in the wind farm planning process and is used by local authorities to help identify areas suitable for wind energy developments. The Wind Atlas as applied to Ireland is available at maps.seai.ie/wind & www.seai.ie/Renewables/Wind_Energy/Wind_Maps/.

Wave and Current Energy Modelling

Compass have a toolkit to allow the data output from complex wave and current computational models, to be radily displayed and interpreted by the non-specialist or professional alike.  This toolkit was initially devloped in the creation of the mapping system for the Predictive Model of the Irish Sea project where the map viewer can be found (www.prism.ie).

Sensor Data Management & Integration

A problem arising for those engaged in planning and analysing site suitability and performance for renewable energy projects is the vast array of data collected to support decision making.  Consider the flows of data coming from wave buoys, wind and current sensors, along with the other environmental and operational data with which this data should ideally be integrated.  It is in this area that enterprise data management, analysis, reporting, and map-based visualisation can play a valuable role.  Taking standards based approaches, the sharing of this data can also be made more efficient.